Jacob Freeman, Product Manager for EVGA recently posted a new photo of the upcoming EVGA Classified GTX 580 graphics card that is said to be taken from the final version of the card. Suffice it to say, this card is a beast in more ways than one. The giant card takes no prisoners in the performance and features department and demands a large chassis with lots of room. A photo of the front of the card is below.

According to this earlier EVGA forum posting by the same Jacob Freeman, the card is jam packed, including three PCI-E power connectors (two 8 pin and one 6 pin), a 14x3 phase "state of the art" power management circuitry, dual BIOS support for resetting the card in case of flashing or overclocking too aggressively, an extra large cooler and fan, up to 4 way SLI, physical voltage monitoring headers for the GPU, Frame Buffer, and PCI-Express voltages, and status LEDs for each. The card has more depth that the traditional cards, thanks to the cooler that sticks out farther from the expansion slot bracket; however, it does maintain the standard double slot width and has a length of 11 inches (hence the need for a rather roomy case).

Head on over to the forum post linked above fore more photos of the EVGA GTX 580 Classified graphics card!

HONG KONG – Aug. 2, 2011 – ZOTAC International, a leading innovator and the world’s largest channel manufacturer of graphics cards, motherboards and mini-PCs, today unveils two new water-cooling solutions – the GeForce GTX 580 Infinity Edition and ZOTAC Omni for gamers that demand a water-cooled graphics card or want to upgrade their existing graphics card with water-cooling.

“As graphics processors become more powerful, greater cooling performance is a necessity which typically results in greater noise levels. To combat the heat and noise levels, water-cooling is an excellent solution,” said Carsten Berger, marketing director. “By equipping the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 580 Infinity Edition with a water-cooler, we were able to reduce temperatures by over 25-percent and produce lower noise levels.”

A Thing of Beauty

Tired of hearing about MSI’s latest video cards? Me neither! It seems we have been on a roll lately with the latest and greatest from MSI, but happily that will soon change. In the meantime, we do have another MSI card to go over. This one is probably the most interesting of the group so far. It also is very, very expensive for a single GPU product. This card is obviously not for everyone, but there is a market for such high end parts still.

The N580GTX Lightning Xtreme Edition is the latest entry to the high end, single GPU market. This is an area that MSI has been really leading the way in terms of features and performance. Their Lightning series, since the NVIDIA GTX 2x0 days, has been redefining that particular market with unique designs that offer tangible benefits over reference based cards. MSI initially released the N580GTX Lightning to high accolades, but with this card they have added a few significant features.

Just Delivered is a section of PC Perspective where we share some of the goodies that pass through our labs that may or may not see a review, but are pretty cool none the less.

Today is a good day to be working at PC Perspective - the goods just keep hitting the door! After taking a quick look at a new MSI motherboard we also have the world's first look at the upcoming PNY XLR8 Liquid Cooled GTX 580 + CPU cooler combo!

You know how self-contained water cooling for processors is all the rage these days? (And why not, we love it!) Well NVIDIA and PNY teamed up to create a liquid cooled GPU, the GTX 580 of course, and also have two options for it: one with the GPU only and the other that includes an inline CPU water block as well.

We literally have the first two production units from PNY in-house and are going through the installation process for them as I type this. The GTX 580s support SLI (if you want to go that route) and look much like a reference GTX 580 in terms of their external design. The insides are quite different though:

Asetek provides a GPU water block that is mounted on the PCB while the fan runs at a much lower speed than normal as it is basically only used for keeping the memory temperatures under control.

Our units include the CPU water block portion as well which DOES add to the complexity of the installation as well as packaging but I think we are going to find this to be a very efficient (and quiet) way to cool almost your entire rig.

Did I mention we are going to be giving BOTH OF THEM AWAY at our Hardware Workshop next weekend at Quakecon 2011? Well now I did. These are valued at $650 each! Just another reason why you need to be in attendance, don't you think?

Just Delivered is a section of PC Perspective where we share some of the goodies that pass through our labs that may or may not see a review, but are pretty cool none the less.

We like big graphics cards and we can't deny...when the FedEx guy shows up with a great big box and....okay, sorry about that. But it is true, we definitely love it when new GPUs find their way to our testing facilities. Today is no different as the delivery guy dropped off a box that gave us the ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) MATRIX GTX 580 1.5GB.

We first saw this card at Computex in June and we are without a doubt preparing a full review of it in the next week or so, but we wanted to show it off right away - after all, we like to share the goodies that make their way to PC Perspective as often as we can. At first glance you can easily tell that the ROG MATRIX GTX 580 is more than just your standard 580-based solution - it takes up three slots with its large cooler and uses dual 8-pin power connectors rather than an 8-pin and 6-pin combination.

It has some very unique options including buttons directly on the PCB that instantly put the fan at the full 100% speed and + and - keys for increasing and decreasing the GPU clock rate without the need to go into software. Pretty damn cool!

There are voltage measurement positions on the PCB and a Safe Mode button to instantly revert back to the standard clock rates if you have pushed the card too far - this will make things much easier for those overclockers that push things well past reasonable limits.

The cooler is GARGANTUAN but keeps the temperatures reasonable while the card runs on a 19-phase PCB.

ASUS MATRIX GTX 580 - Reference GTX 580 - ASUS ARES

This probably won't beat out the Radeon HD 6990 for the fastest graphic card around but we are thoroughly expecting to be impressed in our full review.

At E3 2011, PNY and Asetek showed off a new NVIDIA GTX 580 graphics card that is cooled by an Asetek water cooler. Another variant that includes a CPU water block in the sealed-water loop will also be available. The new system promises up to 30% lower temps compared to the NVIDIA reference cooler. Further, Asetek claims that the new cooler will result in increased headroom for overclocking, and a decrease in acoustics due to using a larger 120mm fan that can spin much slower (and quieter) than the traditional graphics card fan at the same level of cooling performance.

Nicholas Mauro, the Senior Marketing Manager for PC Components at PNY stated that “with a design that outperforms current equivalent air cooled models, this simple all-in-one solution will resonate deeply with gamers looking for a powerful yet affordable option.”

PNY is currently running a pre-order promotional bundle on the PNY website, which includes “$100 worth of bonus PNY gear: a 16ft HDMI Mini to HDMI cable, a custom-built PNY 8GB ‘Liquid Cooled’ USB Flash Drive, and a ‘Liquid Cooled logo T-shirt.” The XLR8 Liquid Cooled GTX 580 has a MSRP of $579.99 while the GPU+CPU water loop, the “XLR8 Liquid Cooled GTX 580 with CPU Cooling,” carries a MSRP of $649.99. The new coolers will come with a standard 3 year warranty, which is extended to 5 years if registered on PNY’s website. They will be available for purchase at the end of June at various brick and mortar and online retailers.

The street price of these coolers will likely determine how much adoption they will receive, as they are in a narrow market between high end air cooling and a DIY water loop.

While also announcing a set of new motherboard at Computex 2011, ASUS was also showcasing two new graphics cards in the Republic of Gamers line based on NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 580 GPU. The MATRIX GTX580 and MARS II cards will offer a unique take on performance and engineering that haven’t been seen in the enthusiast graphics markets before.

The MATRIX GTX580 will offer support for TweakIt, ProbeIt and SafeMode overclocking capabilities at the hardware level while the GPU Tweak software will allow the user to adjust setting and monitor the card in the OS. The card is built with a 19-phase construction (!!) which should offer very impressive power efficiency as well as stability during overclocking. The cooler on the MATRIX card also promises to be 20% improved on the NVIDIA reference design.

The MARS II goes a step further by including a PAIR of GTX 580 GPUs on a single PCB offering what will likely be the fastest graphics card on the planet. The same hardware features like TweakIt and ProbeIt as well as the GPU Tweak software and the 19-phase power construction.

It looks like if you want the fastest graphics solutions available ASUS will have you covered with either the MATRIX GTX580 or the MARS II, depending on your wallet capacity.

X Fastest, a Chinese language technology website today posted images of the Asus ROG Matrix version of the NVIDIA GTX 580 graphics card. The three-slot (no, that is not a typo) graphics card is claimed to have a 16 phase VRM design, GPU clock of 816 MHz, shader clock of 1632 MHz, and a memory clock of 4008 MHz. Further, the card contains 1.5GB of GDDR5 memory on a 384 bit bus. All this power is delivered via two 4x2 PCI-E connectors (8 pin). The following table compares the claimed Asus card's speeds to NVIDIA's reference design.

Asus ROG Matrix GTX 580

NVIDIA Reference Design

GPU Clock

816 MHz

772 MHz

Shader Clock

1632 MHz

1544 MHz

Memory Clock

4008 MHz (effective)

4008 MHz (effective)

Memory Amount and Bus

1.5 GB GDDR5, 384 bit bus

1.5 GB GDDR5, 384 bit bus

PCI-E Connections

Two 4x2 PCI-E (8 pin) connector

One 6 pin, One 8 pin connector

The card features several overclocker friendly features, including nodes to directly measure voltage, hardware buttons to increase/decrease voltage to the card, and a “safe mode” button that promises to restore the card to factory settings located next to the uppermost DVI output.

Asus seems to have gone big with the Matrix GTX 580, and and the three slot cooler should provide ample air cooling for overclocking. On the other hand, one has to question why Asus did not choose to implement a water block for this overclocker-oriented card, as water cooling could allow overclockers to run the card at the same or higher speeds (especially when voltage increases are necessary) and with lower temps. Further, the three slot design may prohibit enthusiasts from using them in SLI configurations, depending on their motherboard layouts. You can see more images of the card here.